MUSINGS ON BASEBALL FOR ONE REASON OR ANOTHER

Tag Archives: Comedy

I have neither the time nor the talent to properly summarize the glorious contents of the above internet video. Or I’m a lazy and terrible blogger, you decide! Suffice it to say (I just spent like six minutes on the internet trying to determine the proper phrasing of that term) that there are Yankees players being grilled like American Meats, using walkers like old people, and CC Sabathia being netted like a beached whale. There are also pirate ships, an eye-patch, batters swinging, missing, and screwing themselves into the ground, and all sorts of topical and appropriate jokes regarding baseball and baseball teams. Watch it. Feel mirth.

Embedded YouTube videos are really great for mailing in blog posts.

Thanks to CBS Sports Eye on Baseball (the Home for All Baseball Fans) and C. Trent Rosecrans and Dayn Perry for bringing this wonderful creation to my attention. I don’t really know how to properly give credit on the internet but I think that about covers it.

On a recent episode of the popular internet podcast Doug Loves Movies, comedian Nick Thune mentioned that there was a collegiate baseball player of the same name. In 2010, the baseball player Nick Thune was a Freshman at the University of Nebraska and had received the honor of being named to the Baseball Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll. His major was undeclared. As far as my meager research can tell me, at present day, he is no longer a member of the current roster. I have no idea what position he might have played. Them’s the breaks, I guess.

According to the podcast, the comedian Nick Thune did not take kindly to the amateur baseball player Nick Thune stealing his internet thunder. All of this seems to have come to a head sometime in 2009. A Google search at that time of “Nick Thune baseball” would result in all sorts of links and articles about the athlete, with no mention of the comedian, and the comedian did not care for that. In order to regain his SEO dominance, the comedian Nick Thune created a YouTube video entitled “NICK THUNE HITS A HOMERUN.” The theory went that this would make the comedian Nick Thune the master of all internet searches involving his name—comedic, athletic, or otherwise. Very spiteful stuff, this. Over the years, the Google clout of this particular video seems to have lessened, and an internet search of “Nick Thune baseball” has once again been taken over by, you know, the actual baseball player. But I’m sure there was a good and humorous run there where the comedian reigned supreme. Just as I’m sure this has been a blog post of some kind.

Very Good Comedian Louis C.K. hosted some sort of chat thing on Reddit today. He was promoting a new stand-up special that he’s selling on his website for five dollars and it’s very funny and you should go buy it. I’m not really all that familiar with Reddit, but I know how to use a computer and I know how to read and I generally know how the internet works so I was able to follow the mess of text that was produced and the online conversation that was taking place. There were some good questions and good answers and it was all very entertaining and interesting. There was also some mention of baseball (!) making it possible for me to comment without too much stress or painful thinking. You see, C.K. was asked if a comedian should perhaps take the stance of an “underdog” when considering his point of view, and Louis responded as follows:

i don’t know about “Supposed to” I think there’s a million ways to do things. there was a pitcher for the Yankees once named Orlando Hernandez or “el Duque” he was a cuban exile. A thing they said about him was he was hard to hit cause he had so many arm angles and release points. a hitter studies a pitcher and watches for the ball so he can time it, but with el duque, you don’t even know where the fucker is coming from. Nine o clock? Eleven? And does he let go of it up top or out front? Impossible. I sometimes think of comedy in those terms.

So there you have it. He mentioned a baseball player. And here we are. I must admit, I remember El Duque pitching in some playoff games, and thanks to the wonder of the internet, I can confirm that he did indeed win four goddamn World Series Championships, but he reached his zenith before I had completely come over to the darkside of baseball nerdery. I do not have much to add as far as baseball is concerned. Did he really change arm angles and release points as C.K. claims? Wikipedia doesn’t tell me and so I do not know. It sounds pretty cool, though. I hope it’s true. To be honest, Louis C.K. mentioned baseball, and since I think he’s very awesome, I had to write about it. It’s not like I cultivated an amazing angle on this whole thing or did a lot of research. The Greatest Comedian Alive mentioned a baseball player and it was such a clash of personal interests I was compelled to produce some words about it. Those words have been this post.

It feels kind of strange, the baseball season being over, doesn’t it? I’m sensing this kind of lull all over the expansive world of the baseball nerding internet today—blogs being updated less, enthusiasm waning, the hot stove only sort of lukewarm at this point. It’s kind of a bummer, but what are you going to do? Oh look, CC Sabathia just signed an extension with the Yankees! I’ll admit, even that isn’t doing much for me right now, but it seems like the Yankees did alright on that one? Or whatever? See, things just aren’t that exciting right now. Baseball was real fun and now its over and now all we have left is the unavoidable chaos of free agent rumors and stupid fucking John Heyman tweets and trying to care where Josh Willingham signs and for how much and how long. Don’t get me wrong, I like all that stuff. It’s entertaining at the very least (remember when Vernon Wells actually got traded last year? Goddamn hilarious), and all the inevitable Hall of Fame garbage is sure to get my blood boiling like it always does. There’s going to be plenty to do. It just won’t be the same, is all. I can’t even justify ranking players for fantasy for at least another 3 months or so.

No, I’m still stuck in semi-melancholy appreciation of the World Series and how interesting the whole thing was. It gives me a good opportunity to post some of the frankly amazing tweets that Comedian and Sharp Dresser Dave Hill was releasing to the world as the Fall Classic came to a close. I’ve stolen and re-posted them here, in appreciation, for posterity, and because I’d rather funnier and more talented people do my work for me. It’s Monday. Read the tweetings from the bottom up because that’s how Twitter works, gramps.

I think I speak for all of us when I say that that shit is super funny. I was sitting down at a concert venue awaiting the comedy of Doug Benson as my wife showed me these tweets on her phone, and I laughed very hard. There was so much comedy going on in one room in such a concentrated period of time I’m not even sure how I survived it. “Now the Texas team is all crying.” I can’t stop thinking about that and awkwardly smiling to myself in public, holding my hand up to my mouth in some weird pretend yawn that hardly resembles a move any normal person would ever make. I applaud you, Dave Hill, for turning your considerable talents towards the realm of our National Pastime if only for a temporary flight of fancy.